On a late December evening in an emptied stadium in the coldest part of Spain, Lionel Messi prepares to set himself apart, once again. A single goal for Barcelona at Valladolid would give Messi the distinction of being the greatest goalscorer for a single club in the professional history of the sport.
Messi's 643rd competitive goal in a Barca jersey, in the 2-2 draw with Valencia at the weekend, matched the current record, the number Pele scored in competitive fixtures for Brazil's Santos between 1957 and 1974. Pele, now 80, sent his congratulations from afar. He assumes the record will be broken soon, and if number 644 does come at Valladolid, there will be applause on hand from somebody who knows what it is to chase a giant Pele milestone. The Valladolid president is the Brazilian Ronaldo, for many years second only to Pele in the list of record goalscorers for their country.
Messi reached his 643 a little scruffily. It should have come direct from a penalty, but Valencia goalkeeper Jaume Domenech momentarily played spoilsport to history by saving the Barcelona’s captain’s spot-kick. He only parried, however, allowing Jordi Alba to pick up the loose ball, and cross for Messi to head in.
Goals from Alba crosses are a regular item in Messi’s vast collection of Barcelona goals. Headers? More of a rarity, although there was a very important one in the 2009 Champions League final. Comparisons across eras are generally misguided, but in any duel to assess greatness between Pele and Messi, we can safely mark the category of aerial threat in Pele’s favour. The Argentinian stands at 1.7m, the Brazilian stood significantly taller and, at his peak, one of Pele’s many athletic assets was a mighty leap.
Pele v Messi has as many distinctions as likenesses. Pele reached his 643 Santos goals in 659 official club matches; Messi should play his 750th Barcelona match next week. But conditions for a brilliant South American footballer playing mostly in South America half a century ago and the most gifted South American playing in Europe in the new millennium are worlds apart. As Pele recalled in his autobiography, he came into a Santos “racking up outrageous scorelines like 10–0, 9–1, 7–1 and 8–1. In thirty-eight games [in the paulista league in 1958] I scored fifty-eight goals.” In all official matches that year, Pele, 18 years old, totalled 75.
Messi’s most golden year would be the 2011/12 season, when, aged 24, he struck 73 Barca goals. Overall, he has probably faced better-organised defences than Pele did. Then again, Pele endured hundreds of fouls that under modern refereeing would be more heavily punished than they were 50 years ago. In the era of black-and-white television, skilful players were often left black-and-blue.
What Messi and Pele do share is the certainty that the record one of them is about to take from the other will take a long time to be passed to anybody else. “Stories like ours, of loving the same club for so long will, sadly, be rarer and rarer,” Pele said in his message to Messi. Fifteen-year careers at one employer scarcely exist in elite football. Stars expect to move on, and clubs budget for their doing so, in the 21st century.
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55 Lionel Messi records
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In all likelihood, a ceiling can be set, a deadline specified, about how many more goals Messi scores in a Barcelona jersey. He is minded to be elsewhere next season. He tried to leave last summer, and the club he has been associated with since the age of 13 held him to the €700 million buyout clause in his contract. That contract expires in June. In nine days time, he is allowed to enter talks with foreign clubs about joining them in 2021.
Barca no longer meet his best standards, and Messi has been the most astute judge of their decline. Last season was their first without a major trophy for 12 years. He spoke out about systemic failings. Barca sit fifth in La Liga, eight points off leaders Atletico Madrid, who have played one match fewer. He has watched his favourite allies, like Luis Suarez, depart as a debt-burdened Barcelona cut costs.
In short, he feels eerily like a certain great footballer of the past whose loyalty to the club he had served from his early teens into his mid-30s would eventually seem like a restriction. “With the club I had played for all my life it became harder all the time. The people I knew best fell by the wayside. It felt lonely.” The words are Pele’s, recalling how he felt aged 33. The words could just as easily be 33-year-old Messi’s.
Al Jazira's foreign quartet for 2017/18
Romarinho, Brazil
Lassana Diarra, France
Sardor Rashidov, Uzbekistan
Mbark Boussoufa, Morocco
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
The major Hashd factions linked to Iran:
Badr Organisation: Seen as the most militarily capable faction in the Hashd. Iraqi Shiite exiles opposed to Saddam Hussein set up the group in Tehran in the early 1980s as the Badr Corps under the supervision of the Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The militia exalts Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei but intermittently cooperated with the US military.
Saraya Al Salam (Peace Brigade): Comprised of former members of the officially defunct Mahdi Army, a militia that was commanded by Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al Sadr and fought US and Iraqi government and other forces between 2004 and 2008. As part of a political overhaul aimed as casting Mr Al Sadr as a more nationalist and less sectarian figure, the cleric formed Saraya Al Salam in 2014. The group’s relations with Iran has been volatile.
Kataeb Hezbollah: The group, which is fighting on behalf of the Bashar Al Assad government in Syria, traces its origins to attacks on US forces in Iraq in 2004 and adopts a tough stance against Washington, calling the United States “the enemy of humanity”.
Asaeb Ahl Al Haq: An offshoot of the Mahdi Army active in Syria. Asaeb Ahl Al Haq’s leader Qais al Khazali was a student of Mr Al Moqtada’s late father Mohammed Sadeq Al Sadr, a prominent Shiite cleric who was killed during Saddam Hussein’s rule.
Harakat Hezbollah Al Nujaba: Formed in 2013 to fight alongside Mr Al Assad’s loyalists in Syria before joining the Hashd. The group is seen as among the most ideological and sectarian-driven Hashd militias in Syria and is the major recruiter of foreign fighters to Syria.
Saraya Al Khorasani: The ICRG formed Saraya Al Khorasani in the mid-1990s and the group is seen as the most ideologically attached to Iran among Tehran’s satellites in Iraq.
(Source: The Wilson Centre, the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation)
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
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Skoda Superb Specs
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The Sky Is Pink
Director: Shonali Bose
Cast: Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Farhan Akhtar, Zaira Wasim, Rohit Saraf
Three stars
Day 2, Dubai Test: At a glance
Moment of the day Pakistan’s effort in the field had hints of shambles about it. The wheels were officially off when Wahab Riaz lost his run up and aborted the delivery four times in a row. He re-measured his run, jogged in for two practice goes. Then, when he was finally ready to go, he bailed out again. It was a total cringefest.
Stat of the day – 139.5 Yasir Shah has bowled 139.5 overs in three innings so far in this Test series. Judged by his returns, the workload has not withered him. He has 14 wickets so far, and became history’s first spinner to take five-wickets in an innings in five consecutive Tests. Not bad for someone whose fitness was in question before the series.
The verdict Stranger things have happened, but it is going to take something extraordinary for Pakistan to keep their undefeated record in Test series in the UAE in tact from this position. At least Shan Masood and Sami Aslam have made a positive start to the salvage effort.
The specs: 2019 Infiniti QX50
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Engine: 2.0L, turbocharged, in-line four-cylinder
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Fuel economy: 6.7L / 100km (estimate)
